Journal Entry
Dexter’s adolescence fantasies are not fulfilled in the story. As written by Fitzgerald, “He wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people--he wanted the glittering things themselves.” Judy was the glitter he wanted to have for himself and an object of his romanticism. He was obsessed with her beauty and had dreamt being with her in a beautiful place and since Judy was rich so he decided to switch carriers and get rich himself so as to accomplish his goals. Seven years later after becoming a rich business man in New York, he happens to meet Devlin, and gets the most recent information about Judy. He finds that his dream of her beautiful image no longer existed as she had become a regular gray house wife. As stated in the story, “And her mouth damp to his kisses and her eyes plaintive with melancholy and her freshness like new fine linen in the morning. Why, these things were no longer in the world! They had existed and they existed no longer.” (Fitzgerald, Winter Dreams) This hits Dexter hard and he realizes that he had lost everything and can never return in his time of youth. He did become a successful rich business man but had lost his dream of marrying the stunning Judy, as she was no longer the attractive person whom he loved. Fitzgerald’s words stated in the poem, “The dream was gone.” “For the first time in years the tears were streaming down his face. But they were for himself now. He did not care about mouth and eyes and moving hands. He wanted to care, and he could not care. For he had gone away and he could never go back any more. The gates were closed, the sun was gone down, and there was no beauty but the gray beauty of steel that withstands all time. Even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.” He regrets the loss of the sparkling personality of Judy in their youth, which he was infatuated with and will never be able to reclaim it.
